George Lee Cunningham

ARCHIVED POSTS

July 31, 2017
SHOPAHOLIC, SHOPAPHOBIC OR WHAT?

SHOPPING FUN AT HOME DEPOT    /photo by Carmela Cunningham
I hate to shop.
Going to the mall is my idea of Hell on Earth. All the men are condemned to the rock-hard, little benches in the center of the promenade, glassy-eyed and bored, waiting for their women to finish looking at, and picking out, and trying on, and spending money on, all kinds of silly stuff.
There’s the kiosks manned by young women selling earrings, and sunglasses, and custom cases for mobile phones. There are giggling gaggles of young girls with bags of goodies from Forever 21 and Claire’s, and the young and foolish men who are trying to impress them or make them laugh or do whatever is needed to get their attention. And there’s the food court, with overpriced, bad fast food – the Chinese place, the pizza place, the taco place, the lemonade place. Cinnabon and Mrs. Fields, Sbarro and Hot Dog on a Stick, Subway and Orange Julius.
It’s the temple of conspicuous consumption, where people cash in the proceeds of long hours spent at jobs they mostly hate for overpriced clothes and senseless junk. I know as I write this that I am being a grumpy old man. But I don’t like to shop. And I have no interest in spending money on stuff I don’t want and don’t need.
On the other hand, there are some exceptions to my shopaphobia. I may hate the mall, but I love to shop for groceries. When my wife goes to the grocery store, she makes a list, she picks up the items on the list, puts them in her basket, goes to the cashier and pays for the items she bought. How boring.
I, on the other hand, go up and down every single aisle, looking for stuff that may not be on the list, BUT that may be a wonderful new discovery. Like the Spicy Maple Bourbon pickle chips or the frozen barbecue chicken personal pizza, or the Wickles Wicked Jalapeno Relish, the spicy pad thai sauce, organic butter from grass-fed Irish cows, beer mixed with Clamato juice, and chocolate vodka.
These are not the kind of things you find rushing up and down the aisles with a list of necessities. It may take me a lot longer, but it’s time well spent.
There are some places, however, where both husband and wife can enjoy the shopping experience. Those are stores such as Home Depot, Lowes, and True Value Hardware. One goes to the garden center to buy flowers, the other to the tools and the fixtures, and the hardware.
The truth is, I’m not all that handy, but I like to pretend that I am, and Home Depot is a perfect place to do it. There’s tile to be laid, switches to install, shovels and picks to dig with, and bricks to stack into garden walls.
It’s a manly place to hang out, a place that makes you want to spackle a wall, install a new faucet, or just browse around and get inspired for possible new projects.
There’s no food courts at Home Depot or Lowes, no sissy kiosks or frilly dresses. You may be a tax accountant or an insurance adjuster by day, but when you hit Home Depot of the weekend, you come in your work clothes and steel-toed boots.
Now that’s the way shopping is supposed to be.
– George Lee Cunningham
Do you have a dissenting opinion or any opinion at all on the subject? Contact me at george@georgeleecunningham.com and let me know. Meanwhile, you can always subscribe and get an email reminder of blog postings. Your name will not be shared and you may cancel at any time.

LYRICS, POETRY AND PROSE 170731
A place to share some words of beauty, inspiration, and fun. Enough of love. What’s better than love? Booze. When all else fails, you can count on booze to get you through the night. If love doesn’t work for you, maybe a shot of something a little less ethereal can. Today we have three Tennessee songs that celebrate booze – two different songs about Jack Daniels Whiskey and one about moonshine. The last song was the theme song from a 1958 regional cult film entitled Thunder Road, starring Robert Mitchum. If you were a teenage Southern boy during that period – as I was – you knew all the words. We hope you enjoy. Click on the name of the piece to get a video or more information.
Thank you Jack Daniel’s Old Number Seven
Tennessee Whiskey got me drinkin’ in heaven
An’a I know I can’t stay here too long
‘Cause I can’t go a week without doin’ wrong
(Old Number Seven)
Without doin’ wrong
(Drinkin’ in heaven)
Without doin’ wrong
(Old Number Seven)
Without doin’ wrong
(Drinkin’ in heaven)
– Old Number Seven Group: The Devil Makes Three; Writer: Peter Bernhard
Bogie Bogart, he cried, “Laureen, let’s sail the sea”
Honey, when I’m dyin’, have another drink of that stuff for me
But now ya find him in Lynchburg all the time
But they keep him waiting at the end of the line
At that old honky tonk people prayed
My God, look at all the parts he played, I’m talkin’ about it
Jack Daniel’s, old number seven
Tennessee, sour-mashed whiskey
Jack Daniel’s, old number seven
Tennessee, sour-mashed whiskey
He used to be so frisky
– Jack Daniels (Old Number Seven) Singer: Jerry Lee Lewis; Songwriters: Tony Colton, Charles Hodges, Albert Lee & Raymond Barry Smith
Roaring out of Harlan went the whippoorwill
He shot the gap at Cumberland and screamed through Maynardsville
With G men oh his taillights and roadblocks up ahead
That mountain boy took roads that even angels fear to tread
Blazin’ right through Knoxville on down Kingston Pike
It was just outside of Bearden where they made that fatal strike
He left the road at ninety that’s all there is to tell
The devil sent the moonshine and the driver straight to hell
And there was thunder, thunder over Thunder Road
Thunder was his engine, white lightning was his load
And there was moonshine, moonshine, to quench the devil’s thirst
The Law, they never got him, ’cause the devil got him first
Law, they never got him, ’cause the devil got him first
The Ballad of Thunder Road Singer: Robert Mitchum; Writers: Robert MItchum & Don Raye
 

July 24, 2017
TO ALL MY LOSER FRIENDS – I’M GOOD WITH YOU

MOTIVATIONAL SPEAKER JIM ROHN
There’s an old Jim Rohn proverb that’s been making the rounds again advising everybody that if they want to be successful, they need to drop their loser friends.
Jim Rohn was an entrepreneur, author and motivational speaker who died in 2009. What he said was this:
You are the average of the five people you spend the most time with.
Some people take Rohn’s advice to mean dump your old friends in favor of new, smarter, better friends.
Rohn is not alone in his “dump the losers in your life” advice.
Krissy Brady, writing on Lifehack.com, warns that your loser friends will hold  you back from your full potential, make you feel like crap about yourself, negatively impact your reputation, bring out the worst in you, and dim the good things in your life. Get rid of them, she advises.
Others agree. Vaynermedia CEO Gary Vaynerchuk CEO says you should “audit the seven to 10 people” around you. Author Steve Siebold claims “winners are attracted to winners,” and business adviser Kai Sato suggests you write down the five people you spend the most time with and give each a numerical value from 1-t0-10. The implication is clear. Dump the low-scorers.
I remain skeptical. Just play it out.
If you are the average of the five people you spend the most time with, what does that mean? If you’re the dumb one of the six, the others have brought you up. If you’re the smart one, then the others have brought you down. No matter how you figure it, one of the six is the loser friend to the other five, so why are they going to associate with him?
My personal situation is that I don’t have any loser friends. I do have friends that have different opinions, ambitions, and values than mine, but they are not losers. We’re just different. In the best case, they lead me to re-evaluate some of my own opinions.
I value the differences.
There are losers out there – people who latch onto you and take and take, but never give back. But they seldom get to be my friends. And when they do, sooner or later (usually sooner) they expose themselves for whom they are.
So my issue isn’t with my friends. I like my friends just fine. My issue is with motivational folks like Jim Rohn, who have managed to gain fame and fortune by saying really stupid stuff.
– George Lee Cunningham

SALVATION IN A BOTTLE
When you look up motivational speaker Jim Rohn on the internet, he sounds like a smart guy with a lot of answers about how to be successful in life and business. He definitely made a lot of money and many successful people credit him with changing their lives.
And, I think that’s great. But here is the rest of the story.
Jim Rohn was a guy, born in 1930, who dropped out of college after his freshman year and got a job as a stock clerk at Sears, Roebuck & Co. He wasn’t there for long. After attending a lecture given by entrepreneur and motivational speaker John Earl Shoaff, Rohn signed up in 1955 as a distributor in Shoaff’s direct sales company, The Abundavita Corporation of America – a Long Beach, California-based company that sold nutritional supplements through a network of dealerships.
A couple of years later, when Shoaff left Abundavita and helped start a direct sales company called Nutri-Bio Corp, Rohn went with him. Shoaff became his mentor, and Rohn soon assumed a position of vice president with the company.
What you don’t read in the glowing accounts of these two inspirational men is that they were a couple of old-fashioned medicine-man hustlers selling hope in a bottle to all the suckers out there – who just maybe should have been seeing a real doctor instead of buying pills from Shoaff, Rohn, and associates.
The following is from an obscure 1959 government document from the federal Food and Drug Administration that year. The government’s findings on the company’s marketing material for vitamins and minerals are almost comical.
Company literature, according to the feds, contained false and misleading representations “that the articles were adequate and effective to produce longevity and superb, perfect, and radiant health, happiness, hardihood, vigor, and good eyesight; resulted in men being active and sexually potent until age 100; resulted in women being beautiful and youthful in their 70’s and 80’s; prevented chronic illness; produced muscular fitness; conditioned the intestines and aided bowel movements; appeased the appetite and controlled weight; deodorized the body; cleaned and lubricated the intestinal tract, including the colon; allayed putrefaction in the colon; stimulated action of the colon; that the articles were adequate and effective for the treatment and prevention of headaches, irritability, nervousness, and mental depression; fatigue; dizziness; vague aches and pains; neuritis; insomnia; loss of muscle tone; weakness; loss of weight; indigestion; digestive upsets; loss of appetite; diarrhea; constipation; inflammation of the mouth; sores about the angles of the mouth; reddening of the lips; swelling and redness of the tongue; and dryness of hair or skin.”
Wow! Do you believe that?
I didn’t think so.
The truth is, probably 20 percent of the folks who actually bought Abundavita’s pills did end up feeling somewhat better. The power of suggestion is very strong.
The point is that motivational speakers – from TV evangelists to pill pushers – are really good at firing people up, but 80 percent of it is just hype and wishful thinking.
And it wears off quickly, just maybe because there was nothing there to begin with.
– George Lee Cunningham
Do you have a dissenting opinion or any opinion at all on the subject? Contact me at george@georgeleecunningham.com and let me know. Meanwhile, you can always subscribe and get an email reminder of blog postings. Your name will not be shared and you may cancel at any time.

LYRICS, POETRY AND PROSE XVII
A place to share some words of beauty, inspiration, and fun.
“Love doesn’t always conquer all, but sometimes lovers do.” That was a toast by my pal Larry LaRue on the occasion of my marriage to Miss. Carmela Castorina almost 23 years ago. Mr. LaRue was correct. Love does not always conquer all, but without it, life tends to be barren and cold. Today we have three songs that celebrate life and the power of love. We hope you enjoy. Click on the name of the piece to get a video or more information.
Some hang on to “used to be”
Live their lives, looking behind
All we have is here and now
All our life, out there to find
The road is long, there are mountains in our way,
But we climb them a step every day
Love lift us up where we belong
Where the eagles cry on a mountain high
Love lift us up where we belong
Far from the world we know, up where the clear winds blow
– Love Lifted Us Up Where We Belong Singers: Joe Cocker and Jennifer Warnes; Writers: Jack Nitzsche, Buffy Sainte-Marie, and Will Jennings
Did I ever tell you you’re my hero?
You’re everything, everything I wish I could be.
Oh, and I, I could fly higher than an eagle,
For you are the wind beneath my wings,
’cause you are the wind beneath my wings.
– You Are the Wind Beneath My Wings Singer: Bette Midler; Writers: Jeff Silbar and Larry Henley
Some say love, it is a river, that drowns the tender reed
Some say love, it is a razor, that leaves your soul to bleed
Some say love, it is a hunger, an endless aching need
I say love, it is a flower, and you, its only seed
It’s the heart afraid of breaking, that never learns to dance
It’s the dream afraid of waking, that never takes the chance
It’s the one who won’t be taken, who cannot seem to give
And the soul afraid of dying, that never learns to live
When the night has been too lonely and the road has been too long
And you think that love is only for the lucky and the strong
Just remember in the winter, far beneath the bitter snow
Lies the seed, that with the sun’s love, in the spring becomes the rose.
– The Rose Singers: Bette Midler and Wynonna Judd; Writer: Amanda McBroom